Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland eBook

This seems more probable, from the loose constitution
of the floor at the point where it joins the stones,
as if it were there only made up of drift and debris,
while the part of the floor nearer the foot of the
wall is solid ice. It has been suggested to me
that possibly water accumulates in the time of greatest
thaw to a very large extent in the lower parts of
the cave, and the ice-floor is formed where the frost
first takes hold of this water. But the slope
of the ice-floor is against this theory, to a certain
extent; and the amount of water necessary to fill
the cavity would be so enormous, that it is contrary
to all experience to imagine such a collection, especially
as the cave showed no signs of present thaw.
The appearance of the rocks, too, in the lower cave,
and the surface of the ice-wall there, gave no indications
of the action of water; and there was no trace of ice
among the stones, as there certainly would have been
if water had filled the cave, and gradually retired
before the attacks of frost, or in consequence of
the opening up of drainage. There were pieces
of the trunks of trees, also, and large bones, lying
about at different levels on the rocks. I never
searched for bones in these caves, owing to the absence
of the stalagmitic covering which preserves cavern-bones
from decay; nor did I take any notice of such as presented
themselves without search, for the bergers
are in the habit of throwing the carcases of deceased
cows into any deep hole in the neighbourhood of the
place where the carcases may be found, in consequence
of the general belief that living cows go mad if they
find the grave of a companion; so that I should probably
have made a laborious collection of the bones of the
bos domesticus. This belief of the bergers
respecting the cows is supported by several circumstantial
and apparently trustworthy accounts of fearful fights
among herds of cattle over the grave of some of the
herd. The sight of a companion’s blood is
said to have a similar effect upon them. Thus
a small pasturage between Anzeindaz and the Col de
Cheville, on the border of the cantons Vaud and Valais,
is still called Boulaire from legendary times,
when the herdsmen of Vaud (then Berne) won back from
certain Valaisan thieves the cattle the latter were
carrying off from La Varraz. Some of the cows
were wounded in the battle, and the sight of their
blood drove the others mad, so that they fought till
almost all the herd was destroyed; whence the name
Boulaire, from eboueler, to disembowel,—­a
word formed from boue, the patois for boyau.

When we left the lower darkness and ascended to the
floor of ice once more, Mignot expressed a desire
to see my attempt at a sketch of the glaciere from
that point, as he had been much struck during his
negotiatory visit of the night before by the sketch
of the entrance to the Glaciere of S. Georges, chiefly
because he had guessed what it was meant for.
He was evidently disappointed with the representation